MSME cluster development
Turning scattered producers into a cluster that can negotiate
A single village producer has no leverage: she buys raw material at retail, produces with whatever equipment she owns, and sells to whoever turns up. A cluster changes every one of those three things.
WCS is committed to enhancing rural livelihoods through an entrepreneurship development angle, paving the way for MSME clusters to flourish via skill development, technology enhancement and empowerment programmes — with a particular focus on uplifting women.
Most rural women in Karnataka are engaged in agricultural activities, either as daily wage earners or small landholders. Many enterprising women have taken up membership in self-help groups and are very active — but most SHGs are engaged only in micro-finance, because that is lucrative and immediate. They are nonetheless the most promising candidates for undertaking MSME activity within their own villages or taluk places.
Our cluster work is the bridge between those two facts. It takes an existing SHG, or a group of unorganised producers, and gives it the three things it is missing: capability, shared infrastructure and a market.
The model
How a Common Facility Centre is put together
The structure matters, because it decides who owns the asset at the end. In our model the producers are the stakeholders — not the recipients.
The SHG women are the stakeholders
Every member of the self-help group is a stakeholder in the project. The centre exists to raise the value of their products, not to be a facility they visit.
A Special Purpose Vehicle implements
The SPV implements the entire project under the guidance of WCS and Vision Karnataka Foundation, who provide complete handholding through setup.
Government funds it under existing schemes
Funding for the CFC comes to the rural women through government Women Empowerment programmes and schemes, which we help them navigate.
The SPV provides the land
Leased land for setting up the Common Facility Centre comes through the SPV, keeping the asset anchored in the community.
Interventions
Soft and hard, always both
Training without equipment produces frustration. Equipment without training produces idle machines. Every cluster gets both tracks.
Upgrading the artisans
- Awareness on value addition to existing products
- Awareness programmes on cluster development
- Trust building and capacity building activities
- Exposure visits to other clusters and industries in other states
- Continuous design thinking activities
- Technology enhancement
- Brand building activities
- Digital awareness programmes
- Presentation skills on products and concepts
- Sales, distribution and supply chain activities
- Financial literacy
- Handling logistics issues
- Financial and book-keeping aspects
- Credit linkages and availing credit from financial institutions
- Modern e-retailing opportunities
- Keeping up with new trends in fashion and allied industries
- Awareness of plastic-free India campaigns
- Exposure to export promotional activities
- Business management techniques
- Administration management techniques
- Entrepreneurial skill enhancement
Upgrading the infrastructure
- Setting up the Common Facility Centre with shared production equipment
- Setting up a raw material bank within the vicinity of the cluster
- Bulk procurement that cuts landing cost through better supplier negotiation
- Removing agents who act as barriers to SHG members during peak season
The raw material bank matters more than it sounds. Members currently procure inputs from far-off distances, and during season times cannot procure at a reasonable price because agents act as barriers. Buying in bulk through the bank substantially reduces the landing cost for every member.
Market linkage
Getting the product out of the village
A cluster that produces well but cannot sell has simply moved the problem. Market linkage is a formal workstream, not an afterthought.
- Technical advice on common branding initiatives for products at national and international level
- Brand building with expert support, clubbed with our e-commerce portal and other prominent platforms
- Linkages to modern format stores and corporate brands
- Entry into social media for product marketing
- Brand promotion activities across both print and electronic media
Sectors
Twenty-three cluster sectors
The method holds across very different products — which is the point. What changes is the technical training; what stays constant is the structure.
Food & Agri Processing
Fisheries
Textiles & Handicraft
Engineering & Industrial
Women micro clusters
Eight micro clusters, about 10,000 artisans
WCS works with National Rural Livelihood Mission Technical Support Agencies to provide baseline data and artisan handholding for women-led micro clusters across Karnataka.
- Belgaum Shahapur Sarees
- Chikkaballapur Leather Products
- Kinnal Toys
- Koppal Kowdi
- Molakalmuru Silk Sarees
- Mysore Agarabatthi
- Navalgund Carpets
- Shidlaghatta Sarees
In practice
Clusters we have built
From Grape Growers to a Raisin Processing Cluster
Grape growers in Vijayapura were selling fresh fruit into a volatile market. Organising them into a raisin processing cluster moved them up the value chain, into a product with shelf life and a wider buyer base.
Read the case study
The Gauribidanur Women-Led Papad Cluster
An 18-year-old women's papad enterprise was producing beside an open drain, losing a fifth of its raw material to aluminium vessels, and supplying Bangalore brands who repackaged the product under their own labels. This is what fixing that looks like.
Read the case study
Developing the Jute Cluster at Bagalkot and Vijayapura
A jute products cluster built on both soft interventions for the artisans and hard infrastructure — including a raw material bank that cuts input costs by removing intermediaries.
Read the case study
Dharani Maize Agro Federation — an SPV-led Maize Cluster
A maize value addition cluster run through a Special Purpose Vehicle, with member awareness and capacity building built on exposure to working industry across five states.
Read the case study
Have a cluster that needs building?
Whether you are a government mission with a scheme to deploy, a CSR team with a district to serve, or a producer group looking for a technical partner — this is what we do.